A remarkable revival occurred in 1858 and came to be known as “The Work of God in Philadelphia.” One of the most active ministers in that revival was Rev. Dudley A. Tyng (1825-1858), a young evangelical minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church. On March 30, 1858, he preached to five thousand men at the noonday prayer meeting in Jayne’s Hall, sponsored by the YMCA. His sermon text was Exodus 10:11, “Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord.” By the close of the meeting, over a thousand men had responded to his gospel plea and had professed saving faith in the Lord Jesus. During this sermon, Tyng is said to have declared, “I would rather that this right arm were amputated at the trunk than that I should come short of my duty to you in delivering God’s message.”
Tyng had been attracting attention in Philadelphia in the early 1850s for his outstanding spiritual strength and the appeal of his life and preaching. His constant proclaiming of his convictions, especially for church unity and against slavery, soon, however, aroused hostility from certain groups. In his own church, the Church of the Epiphany, the feeling ran so high against him that he had to resign. Though bitterly disappointed at this blow, his convictions remained firm, In 1857 he organized the Church of the Covenant, holding services in a public hall. By the winter of that year, though only 33 years old, he became one of the leading forces of the spiritual revival spreading throughout the country.
Two weeks after this great meeting came the tragic accident that cut short his career. While he was studying at his home in the country at Brookfield, not far from Conshohocken, PA, on Tuesday April 13th, Rev. Tyng left his study to go to the barn to check on a machine that was operating shelling corn. A mule was harnessed to the machine, and when he patted it on the head, the sleeve of his gown was caught in the moving parts of the machine and his arm was pulled into the cogs. He was so seriously injured that the outcome was fatal. The arm had to be amputated, and after a brief period of suffering, he died from an infection on Monday, April 10, 1858, but not before he led the attending doctor to accept Christ as Savior. In his final hour, he roused to say to those around him, “Sing! Sing! Can you not sing?” Several fellow ministers were at his deathbed. One asked if he had a message. Looking at his father, Stephen H. Tyng, also an Episcopalian minister, he said, “Tell them to stand up for Jesus.” That was his departing admonition to his friends.
Rev. George Duffield Jr. (1818 – 1888), a Presbyterian minister, witnessed his friend’s death that day and heard his dying words. The sad announcement of Tyng’s death the next day stunned the whole city of Philadelphia. Yet above all the sorrow, hurt and bewildered hearts rang out Tyng’s message, “Let us all stand up for Jesus.” With his friend’s last words ringing in his heart, Duffield went home from Tyng’s funeral service, sat down and wrote a poem, which was to become one of America’s best-known hymns. The next Sunday Rev. Duffield preached a sermon about his friend. He chose as his text the passage, “Standing therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness,” Ephesians 6:10.
He closed with his new poem, “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.” Duffield’s Sunday school superintendent was so impressed by the hymn at that service that he shared it throughout the church’s Sunday school classes. It first appeared as a hymn in the “Presbyterian Church Psalmist”, 1858 edition. From there, the editor of a Baptist periodical received a copy and promoted it in his publication, giving it wider circulation and making it available for publication in hymnals to this day.
George Duffield Jr. D.D., was an American Presbyterian minister and hymnodist. He was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania on September 12, 1818, the fifth such George Duffield. His father was also a Presbyterian minister, George Duffield IV (1794-1868). His grandfather was George A. Duffield III (1767-1827). His great-grandfather, George Duffield II was chaplain to Continental Congress. His great-grandfather George D. Dunfield, was a native of Belfast. He graduated from Yale College in 1837 and Union Theological Seminary in New York. He was a pastor from 1840 to 1869 at numerous cities including Brooklyn, New York; Bloomfield, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Adrian, Michigan; Galesburg, Illinois; Saginaw City, Michigan; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Lansing, Michigan. It was while serving as pastor of Temple Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia that he became a close friend of Dudley Tyng. Duffield was known as a zealous advocate of abolition and Union causes during the U.S. Civil War. He married and had a son, minister Samuel Willoughby Duffield. He died on July 6, 1888 and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan.
After its first publication, the hymn was popular and was sung by both Union and Confederate soldiers in the American Civil War. The hymn also became popular among British revivalists and within public schools in England. As a result of the images in the hymn that suggested ideas of Christian militarism, some people object to the hymn, and some people do not stand to sing it. The hymn was excluded from a more politically correct volume of “The Presbyterian Hymnal,” published in June 1990 by the PCUSA, in order not to offend handicapped people. It has been excluded from the hymnals of other “progressive” denominations because of its references to warfare. Such decisions have entirely and foolishly missed the fact that such warfare is spiritual, not physical and militaristic. Such has also been the fate of “Onward, Christian Soldiers.”
It’s clear from the background to this hymn that Duffield had in mind the spiritual struggle to live for and advance the gospel. Having written it as something of a tribute to his friend, Dudley Tyng, he meant it to be a challenge to all to stand firm in the fight of faith to which Paul frequently alluded. In fact, not only was this the essence of Tyng’s dying challenge, it was also the same for Paul. He wrote 2 Timothy from “death row” in Rome as he awaited his martyrdom. He wrote these words in chapter 4 to the young pastor in Ephesus.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.
As we sing the hymn, we are calling on one another to stand firm in this fight. Notice how every stanza begins with that charge, “Stand up, stand up for Jesus.”
In stanza 1, we address our fellow believers as “soldiers of the cross” in a fight to advance the peace that only the gospel can bring. We carry the banner of Jesus into the heart of the battle, confident that in His Word, He has promised to lead us “from victory to victory.” Some of those victories will be within our own hearts as we overcome temptation. Others will come when we stand firm in the face of opposition from those who deny essentials of the gospel.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus ye soldiers of the cross;
lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss:
from vict’ry unto vict’ry His army He shall lead,
’til ev’ry foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.
In stanza 2, we listen for the sound of a trumpet. In Bible times, the blast of the ram’s horn (not a modern brass trumpet), was a military announcement of the beginning of the battle, much like the bugle that calls the troops to “charge” into the conflict. The statement, “Ye that are men now serve Him” recalls the sermon that Tyng had preached, taken from Pharaoh’s charge to Moses: Exodus 10:11. And what a great phrase Duffield wrote, “Let courage rise with danger.”
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey;
forth to the mighty conflict in this His glorious day:
ye that are men now serve him against unnumbered foes;
let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose.
In stanza 3, we recall Tyng’s stunning pronouncement about “the arm of flesh” in that final sermon, “I would rather that this right arm were amputated at the trunk than that I should come short of my duty to you in delivering God’s message.” Our strength comes from the Lord’s presence and promises, and His provision of the spiritual armor of Ephesians 6:10-18. Faithful to that passage, the hymn reminds us that each piece must be “put on with prayer.”
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in His strength alone;
the arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own:
put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with pray’r;
where duty calls, or danger, be never wanting there.
In stanza 4, we are assured that though the battle may seem to be long at the present moment, “the strife will not be long” when seen from God’s perspective. Today we hear “the noise of battle,” but the next thing in God’s timeline will be “the victor’s song.” Our “crown of life” will be awarded on that day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11). The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 assure us that this crown will be awarded to all who have persevered and who, in His strength, are enabled to overcome.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long;
this day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song:
to him that overcometh a crown of life shall be;
he with the King of glory shall reign eternally.
It appears that there may be two additional stanzas to the hymn, which are rarely included in hymnals today. One reminds us that soldiers must remain at their post. The “broken column” speaks of the “loss” as a result of Tyng’s death
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Each soldier at his post;
Close up the broken column, And shout through all the host.
Make good the loss so heavy, In those that still remain,
And prove to all around you That death itself is gain.
Another reminds us that we must remain alert lest Satan achieve gains while we sleep on duty. It has probably been excluded because of the implication that Jesus could “suffer” because of our weakness.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus! The solemn watch-word hear:
If while ye sleep He suffers, Away with shame and fear;
Where’er ye meet with evil, Within you or without
Charge for the God of Battles, And put the foe to rout!
The hymn tune WEBB was written in 1837, 21 years before Duffield’s text. The music came from George James Webb (1803 – 1887), who attended the Lowell Mason School of Music in Boston. Mason was the composer of 1200 hymn tunes! Webb began his career as an organist in Falmouth, England. In 1830 he emigrated to Boston where he served as organist at the Old South Church for almost 40 years. His best known tune, WEBB, came from a secular song he wrote, called “’Tis Dawn, the Lark Is Singing” and was performed at a musical show on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean.